US Transportation Department Slaps US$80K Fine on Air India

[pk363]

WASHINGTON: The US transportation department has slapped a $80,000 fine on Air India for failing to post customer service and tarmac delay contingency plans on its website and adequately inform passengers about its optional fees.

This is the first penalty assessed for a violation of the Department's new airline consumer rules that took effect last August.

"Our new airline consumer rules help ensure that passengers are fully informed about airline services and fees and what to expect if their flight is delayed on the tarmac," US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said yesterday.


From August 2011, foreign carriers operating to the US with at least one aircraft of 30 or more seats have been required to adopt contingency plans for lengthy tarmac delays as well as customer service plans, and to post these plans on their websites.

US carriers have been covered by this requirement since April 2010, the Department of Transportation said in a statement.

Also both US carriers and foreign carriers with a website that sells tickets to US consumers have been required to include on their homepages a prominent hyperlink that takes viewers directly to a page that shows all fees for optional services the carrier charges, including baggage fees.

Air India failed to post its customer service and tarmac delay contingency plans and to provide a link to its optional fees by the required date, the statement added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... 990657.cms

[pk363]

Have PIA met this requirement or are preparing to pay fine?

[Abbas Ali]

^ I saw information about Tarmac Delay Contingency Plan for PIA flights to/from USA on official PIA website for the first time in August 2011 and I posted it in topic on following link:

Link: PIA Contingency Plan for Lengthy Tarmac Delays in USA (Posted on August 22, 2011)

Presently, the link to "Tarmac Delay Contingency Plan" is available at the bottom of main page of official PIA website www.piac.com.pk

Following is direct link to PIA "Tarmac Delay Contingency Plan" on airline's official website.

http://piac.com.pk/Downloads/delays50.pdf

Abbas

[pk363]

Thanks Abbas for posting link to PIA contigency plans, good to know that PIA prompltly met the requirement and averted heavy fines. Further delight is for the fact that we were a step ahead of AI =D>

[FKhan722]

Are we still ahead of India??

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